Paul just finished breaking down for us what he had discovered…truth.  The truth that he had been looking for his entire life yet never able to find.  He had found truth that didn’t make him more of a superstar, that didn’t make him rich, that didn’t provide for him the adoration of the people, the approval of society…he already had all of that and yet, as we talked about last week, he was still parched man.  Suffering in thirst for something more, something real…and then he found it.  Peace. 

Not peace in that conflict subsided or all of his bills were paid for the rest of his life…not peace in terms of the world, because, we talked about this too last week, that doesn’t even exist.  That peace is just imposter cologne…but peace man…with God.  And even though his life was still hard, his days were arguably harder, the puzzle and purpose of his life came together and his heart was settled…the peace of God which originates in having peace with God.

Atonement man.  Justification.  Reconciliation…remember it was that Greek word, “katallasso.”  All of creation testified of your guilt and then God Himself, Jesus stood in the court room and declared you…innocent…free to go!  And Paul has been pleading with the Jew, pleading with the gentile and pleading with us since the beginning of this Book that we would lay down our own religious bent and place our entire lot in simply trusting Jesus man…

My rescue, my righteousness, my salvation…my reconciling peace with God is not based on me at all really.  If it was then I’d be lost.  I can’t go a moment without offending God with the sinful desires of my heart and unrighteous actions with my hands.  My atonement, our atonement is based completely on the work of one Man, at one time, in one event…when Jesus Christ took my sin and yours…the sin of the entire world for all time, and dragged it kicking and screaming to its death as He was nailed to the cross.  This is what Paul had found…

But how can one action affect so many?  Affect all of mankind even?  It’s not difficult to grasp really.  I think of another event that had a lasting affect on all men…August 6, 1945, one man, Harry Truman, ordered the atom bomb dropped over Hiroshima.  And the death, the devastation, the destruction that followed echos geopolitically still today.  One event, at one moment, ordered by one man resulted in devastation and destruction beyond comprehension and just like that, the Adam bomb that dropped in the Garden of Eden man…at the very beginning of history, when Adam himself bombed out…the fallout and aftershocks affected all of humanity even to this day. 

But Paul is free…free from that affect…he continues his lesson for us this morning in Romans Chapter 5 Verse 12.

Romans Chapter 5 Verse 12

• Some argue who was the first to sin…was it Eve?  Well Eve was deceived so she didn’t know what she was doing and therefore it must have been Adam because he knew it was wrong and did it anyway, “see it says it right here in Romans 5 that through one man sin entered the world.”  Well that’s convenient isn’t it?  So that means as long as you can prove you were enticed and duped into that filth then you’re justified!  Not hardly man!  Enticed, duped, decieved…there’s a Bible word for that…its temptation!
• Paul doesn’t say here that Adam was the primary sinner, what he says here is that Adam was the primary man…the first father you see and therefore through him, his seed as it were, the line of sinful man was ushered in…and so through one man…sin entered the entire world to come of children, born in the likeness of their father, born into sin and because of sin, death spread to all men.
• The wages of sin are death Paul will go on to say in the next chapter and therefore if sin was inherited then so was death.  Gee thanks dad…I was hoping for the car, maybe the house…and we might even SMH (shake my head) at this and complain against Adam but listen we would have done no better.  Adam was our champion man.  Stronger, more pure, more wise than any of us!  He represented the best humanity had to offer!  And yet the futility of humanity is revealed in that even our champion, the best of the best of the best, is no match for the power of sin…ahhhh enter the Man Jesus…

Romans Chapter 5 Verse 13

• Matt, I thought we were going to talk about Jesus?  We are, one second, Paul is about to go into how by one man sin spread but by another single Man, grace and salvation spread but first Paul does what I do so often, many pastors in fact, he goes off on a tangent for a minute because remember he is writing this epistle to not only the church but also to his brethren the Jew and he is making the point that there must be something at work that is deeper, beyond the law that they held to.  Why?  Because folks lived and died before Moses was ever given the law…yet they still died and therefore sin is not simply not following the law but it is indeed a matter of the heart! 
• Remember the Jews man, filled with self righteousness, holding onto their ticket to heaven redeemable at the front gate by Peter, admit one…when Paul is showing them that no one earns their way into heaven…no one pays their way into heaven…the law can’t do it man because even before the law, folks died…and so after the law…even if you follow it to a “T,” not good enough, you still have the same problem they had…the sin embedded in your very being by your father Adam.  And so before the law, after the law…Paul says “nevertheless.”

Romans Chapter 5 Verse 14

• Notice Paul says here just as Adam represented mankind and sinned on our behalf bringing death to us all, Jesus also represented mankind and died on our behalf bringing righteousness, or I should say, restoring righteousness to us all!  The only difference?  Adam’s gift was forced on us, Jesus’ free gift of salvation is not…God will not force Himself upon anyone man…He says, “come to Me all who are weary and heavy laden.”  Hear that?  We have the choice because God is good.  We did not have a choice with Adam because look, man is not good.  And so the free gift of Christ is not like the offense…

Romans Chapter 5 Verses 15 – 17

• That’s so cool!  You know what that means?  In the world, in your sin, the flesh reigns!  You can’t help but be frustrated, you can’t help but be distracted, you can’t help but be unkind, hard and angy…you can’t help but be preoccupied with money, power, sex and stuff…because Paul says it here as he has said it elsewhere, you are sins slave man.  Controlled by it…all these songs, Madonna sang, “I’m not sorry, it’s human nature.”  She’s in bondage man…under sins control.  Michael Jackson sang, “tell ‘em it’s human nature…”  Remember that song?  Here are some of the other lyrics…
• Looking out
  Across the nighttime
  The city winks a sleepless eye
  
  Hear her voice
  Shake my window
  Sweet seducing sighs
  
  Get me out
  'Into the nighttime
  Four walls won't hold me tonight
  
  If this town
  Is just an apple
  Then let me take a bite
  
  If they say
  Why, why, tell 'em that it's human nature
  Why, why, does he do me that way
  If they say
  Why, why, tell 'em that it's human nature
  Why, why, does he do me that way
• Do you see it?  Death is reigning!  But when you step out of this world and into the grace of God in Jesus Christ, you don’t have to be a slave anymore to your lust, you don’t have to be ruled by death any longer.  You still can choose to be…many Christians still struggle with junk man but you don’t have to because Paul says it here and I have seen this, felt this, lived this experienced this first hand…righteousness WILL reign in your hearts unto life…if you will just receive His abundance of grace man…
• The old things are passed away…everything becomes new.  The chains of control fall off of you and no longer do you have to stay in the state of “human nature.”  You become MORE!  The nature in you now is Jesus Christ, having been born again by the Spirit of God you now no longer draw from the pool of strength of “will”…trying to do something right and good…and then you fall man, you fail…no now you draw from the pool of everlasting…the Holy Spirit takes up residence the Bible says…and then power like you can’t even describe fuels your life!  And joy erupts man!  Freedom ignites!  And all of it, every single drop of everlasting water…Paul says here…gift.  Man God is so good.

Romans 5 Verse 18

• This is so cool because we have two particular words here used in the Greek within this verse to describe to us, to show us, to absolutely assure us of the power of the cross man…first though let’s just understand verbally the impact of this verse…check it out, the word in the Greek for offense, as in our sin offending a wonderful and loving Father God, that word in the Greek is paraptoma…when I say paraptoma, you say “booooo!”
• And the word in the Greek for condemnation, our hopeless state that the devil loves because we decay ourselves and harm eachother and crush the very heart of God, that word is katakrima…ok when I say katakrima, you say, “booooo!”
• Ok good you guys got this…now the word there in the Greek for righteous is dikaioma which literally means that we are judiciously set free in the Lord man…free to go…evidence stacked to the sky against us but declared innocent by the righteous free gift of God in Jesus…and so when I say dikaioma, you say, “yeaaaaa!”
• Nice!  Ok last one.  The word there in the Greek for justification is dikiosis meaning very specifically, God declaring man to be guilt free…just-if-I’d never sinned man and so one more time when I say dikaiosis, you say, “yeaaaaaaa!”  Awesome!
• See the cheers of heaven man when even one sinner comes to grace and comes to life and hear the hassle of our hearts over man’s hopeless state?  Of course you do!  How natural it is for this whole room to booooo and hissssss at the disgust of death and sin man and how wonderful to cheer for what God has done!
• Now the hair raising awesomeness of what is implanted in the Bible concerning those wonderful words we just went over.  First the word for righteousness, dikaioma…that word is particular, specific and it only occurs 10 times in the entire Bible!   Now, the law, the handwriting of requirements against man, how many commandments does it contain?  YOU GOT IT!  And so remember the meaning of the word…judiciously set free, as in a court of….LAW!  And so it’s like each one of the laws is read out in our presence, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not covet…and after each one, the blood that pumped out of the heart that was filled with love for you and for me screams from the Son to the Father and throughout all of eternity, throughout my day man…throughout my life people, NOT GUILTY…each one…THAT is what Jesus accomplished for me!
• AWESOME right!?  Just sitting there in the Greek waiting to be found so that we would be encouraged and reminded of just how much He loves us!  And then the kicker.  The word for justification there in the Greek, that word dikaiosis…let everything be established by two or three (2 Cor 13), that word only occurs two times in the Bible…so particular, so specific…established man…2 Cor 13, let everything be established on the testimony of 2 or 3…let it be established then…what?  Well 1 Cor 13…LOVE man!  That God loves you and loves me so much that He rescued us!  And what’s more, by imputing His own righteousness upon us…we not only have freedom but we have an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you and for me…for…

Romans Chapter 5 Verses 19 – 21

• So the law shows us just how far we’ve missed the mark man…we don’t know until we have a target right…just how far off we are…but it was never given to us Jew, it was never given to us gentile, so that we might “hit the target” but rather that we might clearly see that the Way, the Truth and the Life is through the Savior…and that eternal life has come man…that is Paul’s whole point of every one of his epistles, especially this one…Jesus Christ.
• Have you found life yet?  Are you still struggling with it Christian?  Are you still a slave to it son of Adam.  Come to the One who has set you free…yes you can do it…yes He will receive you…He loves you so much.  Give your all to Him right now and walk out of that courtroom and into your inheritance, in Jesus name!